This summer I worked with the Birmingham Play Care Network and Rubix Arts and Wellbeing CIC as one of their playworkers for the Play in the Parks Scheme.

The Play in Parks scheme has been run every summer by BPCN with Rubix joining them a few years ago. It enables families living in severely deprived areas of Birmingham to go to the local park where the scheme is running in safety. It allows children to play outside with the friends. It allows parents to stop worrying for a few hours each day over a couple of weeks. Some families’ children have grown up under this scheme, with attendance every year since it began. Others are welcomed and leave looking forward to it returning the following year.

The object is to enable children to play outside in safety, enabling them to get them away from screens and in the fresh air. To facilitate this donations are used to get the children playing with junk modelling, balls, skipping ropes and other outdoor activities are supplied. The sandpits were a great success combining a new sensory experience for some of the children. Messy play, an essential part of growing up and discovery, is absolutely encouraged!

In addition to outdoor games, traditionally inside activities are moved onto mats and tarps under the sun. Paper mache, jewellery making, dressing up, storytelling and crafts among them. I worked on the textile crafts and jewellery station and sat surrounded by parents creating community and teaching their children skills. such as crochet, beading, helping with spelling to make bracelets with names. Many of these parents and children may have lived in the same area for a long time, but never met. Community is strengthened through this project.

The children played quite happily with what was supplied by the two organisations, but to make things even more fun and special for them, each day a special activity was announced. During my time there this included the Literacy Trust handing out free books for every age group and taste, as well as conducting storytelling times; a group of university students providing games with food to encourage knowledge and healthy eating; a sculptor working with cardboard helping the children make models out of this readily accessible material.

Lunch is also supplied for the children. This takes some pressure off families, and ensures a healthy meal is enjoyed each day. Simple fare of sandwiches, fruit, yoghurt etc is supplied both by the local community and through the funding that enables this project to be run.

Play in Parks was run over two sites with the site I worked on being Stockfield Park, the other Martineau Gardens. Driving into Stockfield, I was pleasantly surprised with how lovely it looked. Just around the corner from the park was a lovely leafy square surrounded by well kept and modern looking houses. I couldn’t understand on that first journey in why this area had been targeted for the Play in Parks scheme. A couple of weeks before a schoolboy was knifed to death in that very square. This is why Play in Parks is vital for deprived communities and families. To gather and play in safety is a right, it shouldn’t be crammed into only two weeks each year and subject to funding restraints.